“The faculty fellowship opportunity is not only a win-win deal for Duquesne and KPMG, but it will also show other universities and potential students that Duquesne has top-notch researchers advancing knowledge in the field of accounting.” – Dr. Yezen Kannan, KPMG Faculty Fellow in Accounting
A household name to anyone in business, KPMG offers clients in 155 countries a variety of audit, tax and advisory services. And for the second year in a row, KPMG, which employs over 174,000 professionals, has been recognized as the fastest-growing Big Four firm in the U.S.
Thanks to KPMG’s leadership and our alumni at the firm, Dr. Yezen Kannan, Associate Professor of Accounting, has been named as the inaugural holder of the KPMG Faculty Fellowship in Accounting at Duquesne. An enthusiastic and dedicated teacher of accounting, Dr. Kannan was also selected because of his outstanding scholarship.
“I’m grateful to KPMG for this opportunity. This fellowship will be instrumental in helping me develop and promote my research as well as collect better data,” says Dr. Kannan. His research aims to understand auditors’ responses to risk through audit opinion and pricing decisions. Additionally, he conducts cross-disciplinary research in finance, management and marketing.
According to Dr. Kannan, “The faculty fellowship opportunity is not only a win-win deal for Duquesne and KPMG, but it will also show other universities and potential students that Duquesne has topnotch researchers advancing knowledge in the field of accounting.”
Robert Krizner, Managing Partner at the Pittsburgh office of KPMG, was instrumental in setting up the fellowship and agrees that the fellowship will enhance ties with Duquesne. “We feel very comfortable reaching out to Duquesne and keeping that partnership strong,” he says. “By making this multi-year commitment to fund the accounting fellowship, we are advancing the profession. Moreover, it hopefully gives us access to Duquesne’s talent.”
Alumnus Glenn Todd (B’91), a Partner with KPMG’s state and local tax practice in Pittsburgh, is also excited about the fellowship and the partnership that it will create with Duquesne. According to Glen, “Probably 50% of the interns that we bring in every year are Duquesne students, and they hopefully transition to full-time hires.”
Glen credits the proximity of the campus and the quality of its programs to the strong opportunities KPMG has at Duquesne for building relationships and recruiting young professionals. “We look for top candidates. Our pipeline to young talent is probably the most important thing to us and it’s crucial to what we do. Duquesne is such an asset in Pittsburgh, and it’s a great source of talent for us.”
KPMG has a long history of commitment to accounting at Duquesne. With a significant number of Duquesne alumni, particularly in the Pittsburgh office, the support that these individuals have provided over the years has had a major impact on the School of Business.
Dr. Dean McFarlin notes that “accounting has always been one of our strengths and the creation of the KPMG Faculty Fellowship in Accounting underscores this. We are grateful for everything our KPMG alumni, the leadership of the KPMG office in Pittsburgh and the KPMG Foundation have done to make the Fellowship a reality. We look forward to growing our relationship with KPMG and are excited by KPMG’s ongoing engagement with our faculty and students.”
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